What do you think of when you think of the 1960s?

Free love? Woodstock? The March on Washington?

They're all totally legit answers—and they're all nowhere to be found in Marked by Fire, Joyce Carol Thomas's 1982 debut novel set mainly in (you guessed it) the 1960s.

Here's what can be found inside this book: The story of one Abyssinia Jackson, born and raised in Ponca City, Oklahoma, and destined for greatness (if we do say so ourselves). While society upheaves elsewhere in the country, in Ponca City, Abby and the rest of her community struggle to make ends meet, to find hope in the face of adversity, to finish their educations and enter into relationships based on trust and respect. If you're thinking this all sounds pretty ordinary, however, think again.

See, what Thomas accomplishes with this book is something pretty extraordinary (and no, we're not talking about all the psychedelic dream sequences, though they're definitely cool). Set in the thick of the Civil Rights Movement, Thomas tells the story of a black community, primarily through the experiences of one young black person (we're looking at you, Abby)—and she does so without directly addressing any part of the Civil Rights Movement.

Why is that a big deal? Well, by telling the kind of story that doesn't wind up in history books, Thomas presents an up-close-and-personal examination of what it means to be human, particularly a black human, in a certain part of Oklahoma in the 1960s. She strips away the guts and glory of the larger-than-life Civil Rights legacy and zeros in on the humanity of black people. Basically, instead of telling the story of a movement, she magnifies the need for the movement by focusing on the moments in one girl's life.

In other words, while Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat and Martin Luther King, Jr. rallies the masses elsewhere in the country, through Abyssinia and her neighbors, we see very clearly what Parks and King are fighting for: the fair and equal treatment of thoughtful, decent, and hardworking people, whose skin just happens to be black. A movement might be controversial, but there's simply no denying the validity of Abyssinia and her neighbors. No wonder this book won the National Book Award, right?

When was the last time Maya Angelou told you to do something? Yeah, that's what we thought—never.Consider this your chance to change all that, though, since Angelou had the following to say about Marked by Fire:

"I believe this to be an important first novel. Joyce Carol Thomas's characters enact the verities of human life: romance, apprehension, loss, and hope, and they perform on the author's real life stage." (Source.)

When the author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings calls another book "important," you know it's time to get to the bookstore. Like, yesterday.

If Angelou's endorsement isn't inspiration enough, though, then perhaps its content is: This is a book about the rawness of being alive, about how hard and how beautiful it can be to stumble through this world. Are we currently living in Abyssinia's world? Probably not (unless you have a time machine… In which case, hook it up). But that doesn't mean we can't both relate to and learn from her journey as she comes of age—after all, the scenery may change, but much of the "real life stage" stays the same.